Obviously next year if we make the finals in any fashion, even if its limping in there after a spluttering season; we all know everyone at Raiders HQ will be doing cartwheels, patting themselves on the back and Stuart will be safe as houses. There will probably be a a few faces being shoved into it too.

But what the hell happens if we again miss the finals? What if he misses 3 finals in a row and makes it 1/6?

Will it hit breaking point and his position becomes untenable? We all kind of had the attitude that this year there would be no excuse for failure and nowhere for Ricky to hide if he failed. Turns out we were all wrong and there were excuses aplenty and many places to seek refuge. Apart from a week of tentative scrutiny, its been mostly silence. These last 3 weeks seem to have vindicated him somehow if anything.

I heard Blake on TripleM this Sunday, and he admitted that the last 2 weeks performances were heavily down to having no pressure on them due to our season being over. He said the pressure of fighting for the finals gets to you, and that tightens up your game.

We all saw this, but is interesting to hear from one of our worst performing players.

And also interesting to hear it after Sticky insists it isn’t a mental problem.

Ennis ripped these comments on Big League Wrap. Basically said the top players embrace pressure and that's why Blake isn't going to be playing NRL next year

Obviously next year if we make the finals in any fashion, even if its limping in there after a spluttering season; we all know everyone at Raiders HQ will be doing cartwheels, patting themselves on the back and Stuart will be safe as houses. There will probably be a a few faces being shoved into it too.

But what the hell happens if we again miss the finals? What if he misses 3 finals in a row and makes it 1/6?

Will it hit breaking point and his position becomes untenable? We all kind of had the attitude that this year there would be no excuse for failure and nowhere for Ricky to hide if he failed. Turns out we were all wrong and there were excuses aplenty and many places to seek refuge. Apart from a week of tentative scrutiny, its been mostly silence. These last 3 weeks seem to have vindicated him somehow if anything.

Strange, but sadly familiar times in Raiderland.

Yeah...
He's in with the top dogs man with a team that is good enough for top four. He's not going to win a prem. They are going to keep having close losses because he tells them they are chokers and it becomes a self-forfilling prophecy.

I think i've heard him blame himself once for a loss and that was for not dropping players / staying loyal. There are a heap of games where we got beat at the death through a missed tackle from a prop who he hadn't replaced for like 35 minutes. He kept Sia on for 60 minutes this year and didnt play one of his other props.
I'm sure he'll find someone to blame for the past two years other than admit his role in it. No one outside of this forum and Mark Riddle talks about it. He'll stay for his contract

No one outside of this forum and Mark Riddle talks about it. He'll stay for his contract

Correct. The average NRL fan on the street and indeed many people who refer to themselves as Raiders fans are completely oblivious to the coach's record. About a month ago I took a screenshot on my phone of a post in here outlining Ricky's coaching results over the last decade and i've shown it to multiple people since then and the common reaction is surprise. People are completely unaware how poor the record is, especially Raiders fans. That 2016 season has completely bluffed most people into the broader story of his time coaching the Raiders.

If we make the finals in any manner next season, he'll stay on even longer. I think that's what we have to look forward to, the odd finals appearance every so often to keep the coach hanging onto his job by a thread for the next decade. It's totally depressing.

We continue to **** about with blokes that are part of some fraternity. It's infuriating.

No one outside of this forum and Mark Riddle talks about it. He'll stay for his contract

Correct. The average NRL fan on the street and indeed many people who refer to themselves as Raiders fans are completely oblivious to the coach's record. About a month ago I took a screenshot on my phone of a post in here outlining Ricky's coaching results over the last decade and i've shown it to multiple people since then and the common reaction is surprise. People are completely unaware how poor the record is, especially Raiders fans. That 2016 season has completely bluffed most people into the broader story of his time coaching the Raiders.

If we make the finals in any manner next season, he'll stay on even longer. I think that's what we have to look forward to, the odd finals appearance every so often to keep the coach hanging onto his job by a thread for the next decade. It's totally depressing.

Sticky's first 3 years as a coach we're as good a start as anybody ever has. 1 premiership and 2 other GF appearances.

Since then it's 12 years for 2 finals appearances.
Can't imagine too many worse than that.

* The author assumes no responsibility for the topicality, correctness, completeness or quality of information provided.

No one outside of this forum and Mark Riddle talks about it. He'll stay for his contract

Correct. The average NRL fan on the street and indeed many people who refer to themselves as Raiders fans are completely oblivious to the coach's record. About a month ago I took a screenshot on my phone of a post in here outlining Ricky's coaching results over the last decade and i've shown it to multiple people since then and the common reaction is surprise. People are completely unaware how poor the record is, especially Raiders fans. That 2016 season has completely bluffed most people into the broader story of his time coaching the Raiders.

If we make the finals in any manner next season, he'll stay on even longer. I think that's what we have to look forward to, the odd finals appearance every so often to keep the coach hanging onto his job by a thread for the next decade. It's totally depressing.

The reality is, by hook or by crook, he's got a premiership ring as a coach. Most never achieve that.
So his coaching career is a success. That's the goal, to coach your team to a premiership, he's done that. People can debate the merits of all they like but they cant take it away from him.
He'll retire as a premiership winning coach. That's set in stone.

But i dont care about his coaching career, i care about his raiders coaching career. Hard to imagine his Raiders coaching career is viewed as anything but a complete and total failure at this point, he's going to get a few more years to try and rectify that, but... it is what it is right now. Even Brew's lost hope in this guy to deliver us a premiership

Northern Raider wrote:Can't think of any other examples of him calling in outside help in the last 5 years. Gets back to the original point of Sticky believing he knows the problem and how to fix it..... even though it remains broken.

He hasn't said that this year.
Belcher was also at preseason for a few days with the fullbacks.

I think we need to move on and get a new coach. He's definitely made some decisions that I thought were stupid... but hey who cares. Let's just continue the meme that Stuart would rather cut off his nose to spite his face for years in some conspiratorial power play instead of doing what he thinks is best to help the club succeed.

Its not really a meme, haha. Memes are something different to a troupe. But that's beside the point...Are you saying its inaccurate to suggest Stuart is a micro-manager, and that he doesnt believe he has all the answers and can solve all the problems?

I'm imagining jugglers? Jesters with yoyos? Though they too would be asking the questions you do...

His record post Brad Fittler, prior to his arrival here spoke for itself. None of this is any great surprise.

What is a surprise though is how diabolically horrible our defence has been over a large part of the past 5 seasons. That's something I didn't expect from a Ricky Stuart team. It predominately stems back to attitude of course.

Anyway, that's by far been the most disappointing and surprising thing for me.

The reality is, by hook or by crook, he's got a premiership ring as a coach. Most never achieve that.
So his coaching career is a success. That's the goal, to coach your team to a premiership, he's done that. People can debate the merits of all they like but they cant take it away from him.
He'll retire as a premiership winning coach. That's set in stone.

But i dont care about his coaching career, i care about his raiders coaching career. Hard to imagine his Raiders coaching career is viewed as anything but a complete and total failure at this point, he's going to get a few more years to try and rectify that, but... it is what it is right now. Even Brew's lost hope in this guy to deliver us a premiership

I agree and thought there was merit with his heralded arrival. Noting I was one of the 'give ricky a chance' advocates stating he had showed some capability of learning from his mistakes (slightly different apprach to a clean out between Parra and here) and growing as a coach. Boy oh boy, this is one of the easiest times in my life I can admit I was wrong, completely.

Continued baffling wizardry with the interchange, selection and use (or lack of use) of personnel and inability to appropriately motivate and lead a prefessional NRL team. Wow.

The reality is, by hook or by crook, he's got a premiership ring as a coach. Most never achieve that.
So his coaching career is a success. That's the goal, to coach your team to a premiership, he's done that. People can debate the merits of all they like but they cant take it away from him.
He'll retire as a premiership winning coach. That's set in stone.

But i dont care about his coaching career, i care about his raiders coaching career. Hard to imagine his Raiders coaching career is viewed as anything but a complete and total failure at this point, he's going to get a few more years to try and rectify that, but... it is what it is right now. Even Brew's lost hope in this guy to deliver us a premiership

In the interest of debate. I'd disagree that it's complete and total failure, going on the assumption that you don't just mean he hasn't won a premiership.
My summation of his time as coach of the Raiders would be that he has failed to take advantage of the opportunity he presented for himself.
Like Brew, I don't think he can win a comp either.
If he walked away this off-season, he would be leaving the club in a good position for his successor. Much, much better than he inherited.

Yes he is. We change our coaches as often as Poms have a bath. The Board have a set and forget policy. Results don't appear to matter much. When will we get an activist Board which demand success or move on non performing coaches? The extension of Stickys contract was baffling at the time. Which other club was knocking down the door to get him?

I wouldn't put too much stock in whatever tonight's trial game result is. Ricky's running the B Team IMO, which must be a bit of a kick in the guts to a few of those players especially Williams and new boy Ryan Sutton.

Meanwhile, Eels have named a side featuring more NRL regulars including Junior Paulo since it's the only trial they're playing this year. I think we can guess the result.

I wouldn't put too much stock in whatever tonight's trial game result is. Ricky's running the B Team IMO, which must be a bit of a kick in the guts to a few of those players especially Williams and new boy Ryan Sutton.

Meanwhile, Eels have named a side featuring more NRL regulars including Junior Paulo since it's the only trial they're playing this year. I think we can guess the result.

I wouldn't put too much stock in whatever tonight's trial game result is. Ricky's running the B Team IMO, which must be a bit of a kick in the guts to a few of those players especially Williams and new boy Ryan Sutton.

Meanwhile, Eels have named a side featuring more NRL regulars including Junior Paulo since it's the only trial they're playing this year. I think we can guess the result.

No one who’s looked at this would ever put any stock into the results of a pre season game.
Getting out of it injury free and seeing where the fitness levels are, and seeing how someone like Ryan Sutton looks individually, those are the types of things to look for

I couldn’t care less if we win by 50 or lose by 50
Teams have entirely different ideas on what they want to get out of pre season games.

I wouldn't put too much stock in whatever tonight's trial game result is. Ricky's running the B Team IMO, which must be a bit of a kick in the guts to a few of those players especially Williams and new boy Ryan Sutton.

Meanwhile, Eels have named a side featuring more NRL regulars including Junior Paulo since it's the only trial they're playing this year. I think we can guess the result.

No one who’s looked at this would ever put any stock into the results of a pre season game.
Getting out of it injury free and seeing where the fitness levels are, and seeing how someone like Ryan Sutton looks individually, those are the types of things to look for

I couldn’t care less if we win by 50 or lose by 50
Teams have entirely different ideas on what they want to get out of pre season games.

The players cant prepare physically and mentally the same as they would for a game that matters when they are know this game does not matter

Mentally, you just cant replicate the pressure to perform when it counts knowing full well this game doesn't. Similar to a job interview, you can do mock interviews or rehearse your talking points all you like. But you can't replicate the feeling and pressure of the real deal.
And physically, the simple reality for guys who are locked into their spots, the regular FGers... they're preparing to knock some rust off, get a gauge on how match fit they are, and MOST importantly (and this is stressed by the coaches all the time) stay healthy.

And yes, yes, yes, i get it! You can get injured in training! You can be hit by a car! blah blah blah. It's risk management. You are far more likely to get hurt if you're out there pushing yourself to your limits like you do in a game that counts.
I could walk outside and get hit by a bus, it's true! But you dont needlessly and recklessly increase those chances by doing blind cartwheels across the Civic interchange intersection. The guys will play football, but their main outcome here is to avoid injuries. I dont care how physical or mentally read you are, you cant help anyone from the Rehab room.

I just can't imagine Craig Bellamy or Trent Robinson telling their players any match doesn't matter. Call it pride in the jersey or accountability for performance. Apart from match fitness/combinations even the successful sides want to gain some new season confidence. No one wants injury, at any stage of the season. But go into a match half hearted and that is a recipe for injury/loss of confidence.

Only a coach who knows his job is not on the line would have this 'save ourselves for the finals' mindset. That is not on Sticky, that is on those who appoint and monitor/care about coaching performance.

I just can't imagine Craig Bellamy or Trent Robinson telling their players any match doesn't matter. Call it pride in the jersey or accountability for performance. Apart from match fitness/combinations even the successful sides want to gain some new season confidence. No one wants injury, at any stage of the season. But go into a match half hearted and that is a recipe for injury/loss of confidence.

We better not get thrashed by 50 Pigman or i'll be demanding a review of the review. Then i'll want that document evaluated. Then that document cross referenced to inform the review of the evaluation. I don't care if we do more frivolous reviews than Shane Watson, we'll finally get one right.

We continue to **** about with blokes that are part of some fraternity. It's infuriating.